'We fell asleep on the sofa together, when I woke up she was gone'

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A man who suddenly lost his partner has sold "everything" to give her the "Cinderella" send off she deserves. Mark Flood, 55, woke up from a nap on the sofa with his partner, Elaine Graham, 50, to discover she had stopped breathing.

Mark, from Norris Green, says he is "empty" without Elaine, who was known as Laine to her loved ones. He told the Liverpool Echo: "We had fallen asleep next to each other on the sofa, I woke up and she wasn’t breathing.

I said 'you alright' but she wasn't breathing, there was no air coming in and out of her mouth. "I was shouting and screaming, I phoned my friend and paramedics because I didn't know what to do, they told me to get Lanie on the floor and pump her heart but it didn't start up again. "We went to hospital, I thought she was going to be OK, paramedics were doing everything they could.

Then the hospital told me she wasn't going to be OK, they said she wasn’t going to make it because she was without oxygen for so long and she has just gone." Mark says he is "empty" without Elaine, who has been his "everything" since they met over 25 years ago.